Locking shelf support

ABSTRACT

A shelf support for locking a shelf edge portion in place when a shelf is positioned between opposing wall members in a cabinet or the like comprises a body member having a lower body portion, a middle body portion, and an upper body portion. The lower body portion has a front face and a back face. A shelf flange is connected to the lower body portion front face, and a stem is connected to the lower body portion back face. The middle body portion is connected to the lower body portion at a first resilient junction, with the middle body portion extending at an obtuse angle away from the lower body portion. The upper body portion is connected to the middle body portion at a second resilient junction, with the upper body portion having an inner opening formed therein, with the inner opening extending downward towards the middle body portion. The upper body portion also has a top edge portion formed thereon, with a substantially flat finger connected to the top edge portion at a third resilient junction, the finger extending downward toward the middle body portion. The finger is in a position projecting away from the upper body portion. The finger has a lower shelf retaining edge and the finger is dimensioned to be collapsibly received within the inner opening.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention concerns shelf supports of the type used tosupport shelves between oppositely facing upright members such ascabinet side walls. The invention particularly relates to a shelfsupport that includes a locking mechanism to retain the shelf in placeduring movement of the cabinet or bookcase in which it is contained, orin case of jostling of the shelf during cleaning or manipulation ofarticles thereon.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Brackets for supporting shelves inside cabinets, bookcases, and thelike, while at the same time permitting the shelves to be readilyadjustable, have been known for some time. However, the shipping ofcabinets with internal shelves presents a problem. With shelf supportsthat do not also positively retain or lock the shelf in place, thejostling or shock that the article of furniture receives during shippingand handling can cause the shelf to bounce around within the cabinet anddamage the cabinet. Thus, shelf supports having a retaining mechanism tomaintain the shelf in position during movement have been proposed.Examples are shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,666,117 to Taft; 4,432,523 toFollows; and 4,053,132 to Del Pozzo.

Even when cabinets are not shipped with shelves installed in place, itis extremely desirable to lock the shelves in place within the cabinetsto prevent jostling of the shelves and the shelves from consequentlyfalling down between the supports, and damaging the contents of anyshelf positioned beneath that shelf. Thus, it is much more desirable toprovide a cabinet or bookcase with an adjustable shelf that has therigid and solid feel of a permanently installed shelf.

U.S. Pat. No. 3,471,112 to MacDonald et al. discloses a shelf support inwhich a resilient finger locks the shelf in place. The MacDonald deviceserves to reduce or prevent vertical movement of the shelf once it isinstalled in place. However, a problem with the MacDonald device is thatno means is provided for resiliently retaining the shelf against lateralmovement if the shelf is not precisely dimensioned to fit within theintended space. As will be appreciated, it is difficult to cut woodshelves to precise width dimensions so that all lateral movement of theshelf is avoided. Hence, the width of the shelves installed in a typicalbookcase can vary around a median width, with some shelves beingrelatively long and other shelves being relatively short. Since shelvesthat are too wide must necessarily be trimmed to a shorter width or theywill not fit into the provided space at all, the result can be shelvesthat rattle significantly within the cabinet of some means forcushioning lateral movement is not provided.

U.S. Pat. No. 4,037,813 to Loui et al. discloses a shelf support inwhich a shelf is passed over resilient members that carry a lockingshoulder. The locking shoulder serves to reduce or prevent verticalmovement of the shelf once it is installed in place, and the resilientmembers serve to tension the shelf against lateral movement. Thus, somevariability of width of the shelf installed in place can beaccommodated. However, this goal is frustrated in part by the need toforce the shelf over the shoulder, which is formed from a solid piecethat is angular in cross-section. As will be immediately apparent fromFIGS. 3 and 4 of Loui, a shallower shoulder is required when arelatively long shelf is inserted, or the shelf will not be able to passover the shoulder. However, a shallow shoulder will not effectivelyretain a shelf in place against jostling or the like, particularly onthose occasions when a relatively short shelf is inserted in place.

Accordingly, there is a need in the art for locking shelf supports thatare able to securely lock shelve in place, which can accommodate theusual variability of shelf length, and do not rely upon preciselengthwise cutting of the shelves to be installed.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In accordance with the present invention, a shelf support for locking ashelf edge portion in place when a shelf is positioned between opposingwall members in a cabinet or the like is disclosed herein. The shelfsupport comprises a body member having a lower body portion, asubstantially flat middle body portion, and a substantially flat upperbody portion. The lower body portion has a front face and a back face,with the back face being substantially planar so as to lie against theopposing upright wall member in which it is installed. A shelf flange isconnected to the lower body portion front face, and a stem is connectedto the lower body portion back face. The middle body portion isconnected to the lower body portion at a first resilient junction, withthe middle body portion extending at an obtuse angle away from the lowerbody portion.

The upper body portion is connected to the middle body portion at asecond resilient junction, with the upper body portion having an inneropening formed therein, with the inner opening extending downwardtowards the middle body portion. The upper body portion also has a topedge portion formed thereon, with a substantially flat finger connectedto the top edge portion at a third resilient junction, the fingerextending downward toward the middle body portion. The finger is in aposition projecting away from the upper body portion. The finger has alower shelf retaining edge and is dimensioned to be collapsibly receivedwithin the inner opening.

The middle body portion and the upper body portion together form anobtuse angle at the second resilient junction and tend to flatten andincrease that angle as a shelf edge portion is moved over the upper bodyportion towards the flange. In contrast, the finger and the upper bodyportion together forming an acute angle at the third resilient junctionand tend to flatten and decrease that angle as a shelf edge portion ismoved over the upper body portion towards the flange. As a result, whena shelf edge portion is moved over the upper body portion and contactsthe flange, the finger returns to the aforesaid position projecting awayfrom said upper body portion, the retaining edge engages the shelf endportion, and the shelf is locked in place between the retaining edge andthe flange (with the retaining edge abutting the top of the shelf andthe flange abutting the bottom of the shelf

The foregoing and other objects and aspects of the invention aredescribed in the drawings herein and the specification set forth below.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a cabinet or like structure thatincorporates a pair of shelf supports, each shelf support constructed inaccordance with the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a side sectional view of an individual shelf support of thepresent invention installed cabinet as in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a side of a shelf support of the present invention prior tobeing installed in a cabinet; and

FIG. 4 is a perspective view of a shelf support of the presentinvention, prior to being installed in a cabinet.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

The shelf support described herein may be employed in any type offurniture, including but not limited to book cases, cabinets (includingchina cabinets, curio cabinets, hutches, display cabinets, etc.) and thelike. The furniture may be free-standing furniture, as well asinstalled, custom-made, or wall-mounted furniture such as kitchencabinets, custom closet assemblies and wall units, etc.

The shelf support described herein may be conveniently formed as asingle unitary piece or part of a suitable resilient synthetic organicpolymer material such as acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) orpolycarbonate. The part may be formed by any suitable process, typicallyby molding and preferably by injection molding.

FIG. 1 shows a pair of shelf supports 20, 20 of the present inventionsupporting a shelf 10. As shown in FIG. 2, each shelf support ispositioned to support the edge portion 11 of the shelf on one wallmember 12 of a pair of opposing wall members in a cabinet or the like,as described above. The wall member has at least one, and preferably aseries, of holes or openings 13 formed therein to receive and hold theshelf support, as described below. In a typical embodiment, four shelfsupports would be used to support a shelf, with two such supportssupporting opposite ends of each shelf edge portion.

The shelf support 20 is illustrated in side view in FIG. 3 andperspective view in FIG. 4. The shelf support 20 comprises a body member21 that is substantially rectangular in shape, which body member has alower body portion 22, a substantially flat middle body portion 23, anda substantially flat upper body portion 24. The lower body portion has afront face 25 and a back face 26, with the back face being substantiallyplanar so as to lie against the opposing upright wall member in which itis installed. A shelf flange 27 is connected to the lower body portionfront face, and a stem 28, which is generally cylindrical in shape, isconnected to the lower body portion back face. The middle body portionis connected to the lower body portion at a first resilient junction 31,with the middle body portion extending at an obtuse angle away from thelower body portion.

The upper body portion is connected to the middle body portion at asecond resilient junction 32, with the upper body portion having aninner opening 33 formed therein. The inner opening 33 is generallyrectangular in shape, and extends downward towards the middle bodyportion. The upper body portion also has a top edge portion 34 formedthereon, with a substantially flat finger 36 connected to the top edgeportion at a third resilient junction 35, the finger extending downwardtoward the middle body portion 23. As best seen in FIG. 3, the finger 36is in a position projecting away from the upper body portion 24. Thefinger, which is generally rectangular in shape, has a lower shelfretaining edge 37 and the finger is dimensioned to be collapsiblyreceived within the inner opening 33.

The middle body portion 23 and the upper body portion 24 together forman obtuse angle at the second resilient junction 32 and tend to flattenand increase that angle as a shelf edge portion 11 is moved over theupper body portion 24 towards the flange 27. In contrast, the finger 36and the upper body portion 24 together form an acute angle at the thirdresilient junction 35 and tend to flatten and decrease that angle as ashelf edge portion 11 is moved over the upper body portion towards theflange 27. As a result, when a shelf edge portion is moved over theupper body portion and contacts the flange, the finger returns to theaforesaid position projecting away from said upper body portion, theretaining edge engages the shelf end portion, and the shelf is locked inplace between the retaining edge and the flange (with the retaining edgeabutting the top of the shelf and the flange abutting the bottom of theshelf). As shown in FIG. 2, the middle body portion 23, which has beencompressed against the wall as the shelf edge portion is forced towardsthe flange, can then exert a compressing force against the side face 40of the shelf edge portion and help reduce lateral movement of the shelf.However, since this compressing force is exerted primarily by action ofthe first and second resilient junctions 31, 32, the finger 36 issubstantially free to snap back or return to its normal position, priorto being compressed by the shelf edge portion, due to the nowunrestricted travel at resilient junction 35. Thus the middle bodyportion can act to inhibit lateral movement of the shelf withoutdetracting from the ability of the finger to inhibit vertical movementof the shelf.

As best seen in FIG. 4, in a preferred embodiment the inner opening 33extends beyond the second junction 32 and into the upper region of themiddle body portion 23. The finger 36 also extends downward beyond thesecond resilient junction 32 and over an upper region of the middle bodyportion. Because the middle body portion is now angling away from thedirection of the upper body portion in the opposite direction from whichthe finger is angling away from the upper body portion, it will be seen,particularly in FIG. 4, that the distance between said shelf retainingedge 37 and the body member 21 is substantially increased. This allowsthe shelf retaining edge to contact the shelf edge portion at a greaterdistance from the side face 40 and helps to reduce inadvertent slippageof the shelf passed the retaining edge (particularly when the shelf isof less than average width).

It will be seen in FIG. 1 and FIG. 3 that the flange 27 is connected tothe lower body portion 22 at a position below the first resilientjunction 31. This permits inclusion of a side abutment portion 42connected to the flange and the lower body portion. The side abutmentportion 42 serves to prevent forward motion of the shelf 10. It will benoted that the shelf supports in the Figures are numbered the same as ifthey are identical, but this is for convenience, and it will beappreciated that the two shelf supports in FIG. 1 are not identical butdiffer in the location of the side abutment portion, depending upon thecorner of the shelf on which the support is located.

The shelf support also preferably includes at least one reinforcinggusset connected to the flange and the lower body portion to strengthenthe flange and increase the load that can be carried by the flange. Asillustrated, three reinforcing gussets 43, 43, 43 are most in thepreferred embodiment.

While shelf supports of the present invention are intended to be used inpairs, and particularly two pairs for each shelf, it will be appreciatethat a shelf support of the invention could be used on one side of ashelf and a different type of support could be used on the other side,particularly where sufficient locking is obtained with a singlelocking-type shelf support. It will also be appreciated the some, all,or none of the supports may include a side abutment portion, dependingupon whether the cabinet has a solid back, front edge portions, or thelike

The foregoing is illustrative of the present invention, and is not to beconstrued as limiting thereof. The invention is defined by the followingclaims, with equivalents of the claims to be included therein.

That which is claimed is:
 1. A shelf support formed from polymermaterial for locking a shelf edge portion in place when a shelf ispositioned between opposing wall members in a cabinet or the like, saidshelf support comprising: a body member having a lower body portion, asubstantially flat middle body portion, and a substantially flat upperbody portion; said lower body portion having a front face and a backface, wherein said back face is substantially planar; a shelf flangeconnected to said lower body portion front face; a stem connected tosaid lower body portion back face; said middle body portion connected tosaid lower body portion at a first resilient junction, wherein saidmiddle body portion extends at an obtuse angle away from said lower bodyportion; said upper body portion connected to said middle body portionat a second resilient junction, said upper body portion having an inneropening formed therein and said upper body portion having a top edgeportion formed thereon, with said inner opening extending downwardtoward said middle body portion, and a substantially flat fingerconnected to said top edge portion at a third resilient junction andextending downward toward said middle body portion, said finger in aposition projecting away from said upper body portion, said fingerhaving a lower shelf retaining edge, and said finger dimensioned to becollapsibly received within said inner opening; with said middle bodyportion and said upper body portion together adapted to form an obtuseangle at said second resilient junction and tending to flatten andincrease said angle as said shelf edge portion is moved over said upperbody portion towards said flange; and with said finger and said upperbody portion together adapted to form an acute angle at said thirdresilient junction and tending to flatten and decrease said angle assaid shelf edge portion is moved over said upper body portion towardssaid flange; so that when said shelf edge portion is moved over saidupper body portion and contacts said flange said finger returns to saidposition projecting away from said upper body portion and said retainingedge engages said shelf and locks said shelf in place against saidflange.
 2. The shelf support according to claim 1, wherein said inneropening extends into said middle body portion and said finger extendsover a portion of said middle body portion, whereby the distance betweensaid shelf retaining edge and said body member is increased.
 3. Theshelf support according to claim 1, wherein said inner opening issubstantially rectangular in shape.
 4. The shelf support according toclaim 1, wherein said stem is substantially cylindrical in shape.
 5. Theshelf support according to claim 1, wherein said body member issubstantially rectangular in shape.
 6. The shelf support according toclaim 1, wherein said flange and said body member are substantiallyequal in width.
 7. The shelf support according to claim 1, wherein saidflange is connected to said lower body portion at a position below saidfirst resilient junction.
 8. The shelf support according to claim 1,further comprising a side abutment portion connected to said flange andsaid lower body portion.
 9. The shelf support according to claim 1,further comprising at least one reinforcing gusset connected to saidflange and said lower body portion.
 10. The shelf support according toclaim 1 produced by the process of injection molding.
 11. A shelfsupport formed by injection molding from a single unitary piece ofpolymer material for locking a shelf edge portion in place when a shelfis positioned between opposing wall members in a cabinet or the like,said shelf support comprising: a body member having a lower bodyportion, a substantially flat middle body portion, and a substantiallyflat upper body portion; said lower body portion having a front face anda back face, wherein said back face is substantially planar; a shelfflange connected to said lower body portion front face; a stem connectedto said lower body portion back face; said middle body portion connectedto said lower body portion at a first resilient junction, wherein saidmiddle body portion extends at an obtuse angle away from said lower bodyportion; said upper body portion connected to said middle body portionat a second resilient junction, said upper body portion having an inneropening formed therein and said upper body portion having a top edgeportion formed thereon, with said inner opening extending downwardtoward said middle body portion, and a substantially flat fingerconnected to said top edge portion at a third resilient junction andextending downward toward said middle body portion, said finger in aposition projecting away from said upper body portion, said fingerhaving a lower shelf retaining edge, and said finger dimensioned to becollapsibly received within said inner opening; wherein said flange isconnected to said lower body portion at a position below said firstresilient junction; and wherein said inner opening extends into saidmiddle body portion and said finger extends over a portion of saidmiddle body portion, whereby the distance between said shelf retainingedge and said body member is increased; with said middle body portionand said upper body portion together adapted to form an obtuse angle atsaid second resilient junction and tending to flatten and increase saidangle as said shelf edge portion is moved over said upper body portiontowards said flange; and with said finger and said upper body portiontogether adapted to form an acute angle at said third resilient junctionand tending to flatten and decrease said angle as said shelf edgeportion is moved over said upper body portion towards said flange; sothat when said shelf edge portion is moved over said upper body portionand contacts said flange said finger returns to said position projectingaway from said upper body portion and said retaining edge engages saidshelf and locks said shelf in place against said flange.
 12. The shelfsupport according to claim 11, wherein said inner opening issubstantially rectangular in shape.
 13. The shelf support according toclaim 11, wherein said stem is substantially cylindrical in shape. 14.The shelf support according to claim 11, wherein said flange and saidbody member are substantially equal in width.
 15. The shelf supportaccording to claim 11, further comprising a side abutment portionconnected to said flange and said lower body portion.
 16. The shelfsupport according to claim 11, further comprising at least onereinforcing gusset connected to said flange and said lower body portion.17. The shelf support according to claim 11, wherein said body member issubstantially rectangular in shape.